Motivational Quotes

Wisdom

Keep me away from the wisdom which does not cry, the philosophy which does not laugh, and the greatness which does not bow before children.

- Gibran, Kahlil

Best Quotes about Wisdom

Who is a wise man? He who learns of all men.

Talmud, The

To acquire knowledge, one must study; but to acquire wisdom, one must observe.

Marilyn vos Savant

Wisdom is like electricity. There is no permanently wise man, but men capable of wisdom, who, being put into certain company, or other favorable conditions, become wise for a short time, as glasses rubbed acquire electric power for a while.

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

Wisdom and knowledge shall be the stability of your times.

Bible

The only thing that we know is that we know nothing and that is the highest flight of human wisdom.

Tolstoy, Count Leo

Wisdom is not attained by years, but by ability.

Plautus, Titus Maccius

No matter how long he lives, no man ever becomes as wise as the average woman of forty-eight.

Mencken, H. L.

Raphael paints wisdom; Handel sings it, Phidias carves it, Shakespeare writes it, Wren builds it, Columbus sails it, Luther preaches it, Washington arms it, Watt mechanizes it.

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

The extreme limit of wisdom --that's what the public calls madness.

Cocteau, Jean

10.

It seems to me that, in every culture, I come across a chapter headed Wisdom. And then I know exactly what is going to follow: Vanity of vanities, all is vanity.

Wittgenstein, Ludwig

11.

The wisest man is he who does not fancy that he is so at all.

Boileau, Nicholas

12.

Wisdom is meaningless until our own experience has given it meaning.

Evans, Bergen

13.

Those who wish to appear wise among fools, among the wise seem foolish.

Quintilian

14.

Wisdom we know is the knowledge of good and evil -- not the strength to choose between the two.

Cheever, John

15.

Timing, degree and conviction are the three wise men in this life.

Fitzhenry, R. I.

16.

The wise person has long ears and a short tongue.

Proverb, German

17.

Wisdom hath her excesses, and no less need of moderation than folly.

Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De

18.

The days that are still to come are the wisest witnesses.

Pindar

19.

Let no man deceive himself. If any man among you seemeth to be wise in this world, let him become a fool, that he may be wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. [1 Corinthians 3:18-19]

Bible

20.

The tigers of wrath are wiser than the horses of instruction.

Blake, William

21.

Now all the knowledge and wisdom that is in creatures, whether angels or men, is nothing else but a participation of that one eternal, immutable and increased wisdom of God, or several signatures of that one archetypal seal, or like so many multiplied reflections of one and the same face, made in several glasses, whereof some are clearer, some obscurer, some standing nearer, some further off.

Cudworth, Ralph J.

22.

As it is the characteristic of great wits to say much in few words, so small wits seem to have the gift of speaking much and saying nothing.

La Rochefoucauld, Francois De

23.

Wise people, even though all laws were abolished, would still lead the same life.

Aristophanes

24.

Well I am certainly wiser than this man. It is only too likely that neither of us has any knowledge to boast of; but he thinks that he knows something which he does not know, whereas I am quite conscious of my ignorance. At any rate it seems that I am wiser than he is to this small extent, that I do not think that I know what I do not know.

Socrates

25.

If you wish to know the road up the mountain, ask the man who goes back and forth on it.

Zenrin

26.

Wisdom, compassion, and courage are the three universally recognized moral qualities of men.

Confucius

27.

The price of wisdom is eternal thought.

Birch, Frank

28.

Wisdom makes a slow defense against trouble, though a sure one in the end.

Goldsmith, Oliver

29.

Some men are wise, and some are otherwise.

Smollett, Tobias G.

30.

Experiences are savings which a miser puts aside. Wisdom is an inheritance which a wastrel cannot exhaust.

Kraus, Karl

31.

Inner wisdom is more important than wealth. The more you spend it, the more you gain.

Oprah Winfrey

32.

Wisdom is the power to put our time and our knowledge to the proper use.

Watson, Thomas J.

33.

Just as a cautious businessman avoids investing all his capital in one concern, so wisdom would probably admonish us also not to anticipate all our happiness from one quarter alone.

Freud, Sigmund

34.

Wisdom doesn't necessarily come with age. Sometimes age just shows up all by itself.

Ziggy

35.

True wisdom lies in gathering the precious things out of each day as it goes by.

Bouton, E. S.

36.

It is not from reason that justice springs, but goodness is born of wisdom.

Maeterlinck, Maurice

37.

Men are wise in proportion, not to their experience, but to their capacity for experience.

James Boswell

38.

The growth of wisdom may be gauged exactly by the diminution of ill temper.

Nietzsche, Friedrich

39.

Wise are they who have learned these truths: Trouble is temporary. Time is a tonic. Tribulation is a test tube.

40.

The greatest event for the world is the arrival of a new and wise person.

Carlyle, Thomas

41.

Wisdom is learning what to overlook.

James, William

42.

Where there is charity and wisdom, there is neither fear nor ignorance. Where there is patience and humility, there is neither anger nor vexation. Where there is poverty and joy, there is neither greed nor avarice. Where there is peace and meditation, there is neither anxiety nor doubt.

Francis of Assisi, St.

43.

It is great folly to wish to be wise all alone.

La Rochefoucauld, Francois De

44.

Everything I know I learned after I was thirty.

Clemenceau, Georges

45.

Wisdom is nothing more than healed pain.

Lee, Robert E.

46.

Force without wisdom falls of its own weight.